


From the Ashes

by Leonawriter



Series: 5Ds Flipped AU [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-03 23:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 8,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is as it has always been - Signer versus Dark Signer, since the Earthbound and the Crimson Dragon first clashed.  But this time... oh, this time will be different.  AU where the Earthbound are the good guys and the Crimson Dragon is a Magnificent Bastard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

Everyone knew that the world was hardly a loving place.

Everyone knew it, and it was common knowledge that it was the easiest thing to be pushed back down when you were trying to find your way, get burnt by the flame when you tried to light your path.  Hope still abounded, but many simply chose to live out their lives as their fathers and forefathers and ancestors before them had, unable to change the way of life, regardless of governments or the freedoms they supposedly had.

People were easy to manipulate, you would find as you grew up.  And in turn, you would learn the trick to doing it yourself.  Word tricks, the quirk of a mouth, giving people the idea of getting what they wished, and giving them a harsh reality far from it.

Such, after all, was the way of the world.

Still.  No one wished to be trapped so, bound like they were.  Some dreamed of flying.

Others - of bringing back freedom.  

True freedom.

And in turn, those who would eventually have the power to rise against the flow of things, would respond to their desire.


	2. Chapter 2

Kiryu was nothing if not driven, full of obstinate will and determination to see his plan through to the end.  Perhaps that was, in the end, what undid him; that he had never imagined being so successful in his endeavour that there was nothing more for him to do.

There  _had_  to be something.  He’d saved Satellite from itself, brought order where once there was chaos and wanton crime, hope where there had been despair.  

It was said that the devil made work for idle hands.  In Kiryu’s case, it was a team here, whose patch was small but not under the Team Satisfaction banner.  The constant knowledge that, had he been forced under another’s rule, he would instinctively fight back, which while this should not have been - they were not controlling, only making sure that the areas were safe - he was sure that someone would feel so.

He was not yet done.  Not yet.

The small number of people he felt capable of trusting grew less and less by the day.  

This man was going to start a fight!  ( _He wasn’t, he was just trying to move out of his way_.)

That kid there was a spy, lurking in their territory, undermining them.  ( _Of course he wasn’t, his brother had made that duel disk from scraps, just like Yuusei’s, and Crow’s, and Jack’s all had been, let alone his own, before a clamp was attached, life points reached zero, sparks flew and it wouldn’t work any more_.)

A new team was forming- ( _Kids at play, just kids at play, pretending to be their heroes, who had made Satellite safe, until one day it wasn’t any more_.)

Tensions began to mount within the team.  He should have seen this coming, if nothing else.

There was some part of him, if small and whispering in the back of his mind, saying that he was wrong, that he should stop, listen, think about what he was doing, but the much louder side was the one he listened to, that said  _it’s not over yet,_ and  _just one more match, just one more fight._

It came to a head when Jack and Crow decided that they’d had enough, that they were leaving.  Kiryu pleaded with them to stay -  _just one more day -_ but they would have none of it, and did not look back, leaving him with Yuusei, loyal, steady Yuusei, whose presence was like a rock at his side.

Until he shared his plans for Security, the last battle to secure Satellite once and for all.  Then, even Yuusei left.

Not that it mattered in the end.  He would continue, as he always had.  He had started this alone, and he could end it that way if he had to, if no one was left to stand by him.

Kiryu was nothing if not a driven man.  He’d had his dream for long enough, and he wasn’t going to give up on it simply because everyone else had given up on him.

He gave the map, all shaded in black, another look, and smiled sharply before putting his attention on the next plan of action.


	3. Chapter 3

At first, Kiryu had genuinely thought that they had come back to him, having seen reason and understood how this was the best, the only, way.

Something broke within him when he realised that they hadn’t.

Couldn’t they see?  How could they be so blind to what was right in front of them?

Maybe it was because they had grown up with somewhere to go back to, when everything went wrong.  Someone to run crying to when they were hurt, and they had only left because they had felt that they were grown up, and ready to leave the nest.

Kiryu had never had such a luxury, although as far as he was concerned he’d turned out the stronger for it.  Kiryu, it seemed, was the only one who had not forgotten the terror, the authoritarian dictatorship that was the rule of Neo Domino Security on those who lived in Satellite.

The only way those who lived in Satellite could truly live would be if they were free from the shackles of Security.  And he had promised himself that he would make sure that he would take them down just as he had the others, if that was what it took.

But in the end, he only brought down one of their number, and even that was caught short by his once close friend stopping him.

And if nothing hurt as badly as his friends letting him down, giving up on his dreams as soon as they became too much for their tastes, then the sight of Yuusei-

Yuusei, handing him over to the very Security he’d been trying to rid Satellite of.

In that moment, one word filled his mind, one thought filling him as he screamed, eyes wild, breaking apart from the inside.

 _“No…!  You-  YOU!”_   He shouted, fighting back against those who were pulling him into the back of a Security van, ready to take him straight to prison.  

Yuusei was shouting out his name over everything else, but he would not hear it.

_“TRAITOR!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you've probably noticed, the chapter length is rather small. That's because these are ficlets that were first written in Tumblr, and so far, I'm keeping them short.


	4. Chapter 4

For the crime of causing the death of one of their own and resisting arrest, Kiryu was awarded his first marker - one that ran from from his hairline, over his eye, and down his face.

He had once prided himself on his lack of one; a thing which meant that unless they knew where to look, Security would never be able to track him, or others through him, down.  Now-

Ah, well.  ’Now’ didn’t matter unless he could get out.

He merely needed to build himself back up, find the willpower to keep going - and he had plenty of that, more than enough reason to want out, things he had to, needed to do on the outside that could not wait.  He would weather the abuse, use it to his advantage, turn their plans against them.  He’d used the strategy before, he was sure it would work for him again now.  It had to.

Bruises, he found, took longer to heal when they kept being renewed.  Went purple quicker without ice or something cold to put on them.

But none of it hurt as badly, no cut had ever scarred so deeply, as when they took his deck from him.  For the first time since he had been arrested, he felt an emptiness take root within him, an abiding hollow feeling that would not leave him alone, but left him without a weapon against any further attacks that might come.

While they had been taking it he had screamed and fought like a wild thing, but after-

After, he slumped back against the wall of the cell in isolation, eyes glazed, as though a part of his soul had been ripped out of his body.


	5. Chapter 5

It didn’t take long for the guards to stop coming to his cell.  A victim that did not fight back was apparently of no interest, and with no reason to go back, his meals were soon forgotten also, and by the point none came at all the days had turned into weeks, and weeks into a meaningless expanse of time that he could make no sense of.

False promises to himself were all that he had left.  The idea that somehow he would get his deck back, that he would make them pay for what they had done.  That following that, he would have his vengeance on his old team, the ones who turned him in to Security, who betrayed him to the very ones he had been meaning to take down from their high perches, destroy their hold on the island.

False, because with each passing day, with each time his eyes drooped and his mind supplied him conquests and escape routes in his dreams, he became weaker.  

Until the feeling that he was not alone made itself clear, a slight prickling at the base of his neck in his waking hours, his eyes flicking vaguely around the now ever-constant surroundings of the cell.

_“What is it that you desire, Kyousuke Kiryu?”_

His first thought was wonder, at the fact that there was another voice.  The second, suspicion.

_Who-?_

_“My name is Ccapac Apu, and I am a being of power.”_ The voice shivered down him, moving from place to place, as though coming from both near and far away, with many, many voices.   _“Now tell me, Kyousuke Kiryu, what it is that you desire, that you would give up your life for, and become a Dark Signer?”_

He tried to speak, and when he opened his mouth to he was startled when he heard a dry, rasping croak instead of the voice he still half-remembered in his thoughts.

“Revenge,” he managed to get out, a manic smile forming on his face.  ”I want…   _vengeance._ ”

He was already dead.  Nothing could make his life worse than it already was.

But for his  _revenge,_ to get back at that  _traitor_ , the  _lot of them_  -

That, maybe, would satisfy him.


	6. Chapter 6

On his transformation into a Dark Signer, Kiryu could not say much more than that it was good to have the strength in his arms and legs to stand, to move, to walk again!  For too long he had let himself go, resigned himself to his fate as though soulless from the time his deck had been taken from him.

But not any more.  No longer would he stand idle.  He had renewed strength, and a renewed reason to fight!

He began to laugh.  It was not the easy laugh he had once shared with his Team, his brothers, during their days together.  Nor was it the one he had given them as they tore themselves apart.

No.  This - this, was the laugh of a  _madman_.

He would be found striding out of the facility, an aura of power ensuring that nothing would stand in his way, and the seemingly soulless, empty bodies of both inmates and wardens alike granting him no resistance, for all the world as though his transfiguration had caused a massacre.

While just a year ago, maybe even less, he would have been appalled at the thought, as things stood he found himself not caring, even taking delight in the situation.

Some faces were familiar.  A few from Satellite, that he recognised from rival gangs, others from as he was coming in, those who had stared at him once as though he were entertainment and were now unable to see anything any more.

Still more were the guards.  Prison wardens struck down where they had been on duty.  Several would be left with broken ribs and noses courtesy of Kiryu’s temper, his desire for them to feel what he had felt, to repay them, even if they hadn’t been the ones to inflict the damage.

And then, not far from leaving, he found him.  

The man who had lead the raid against him that fateful night.   _Him._

Just lying there.

He’d picked up a gun some time ago now, and it fit readily into his hand, and he found the idea of beating the man to within an inch of whatever remained of  _his_ life far too satisfying.

He never saw it coming.  One moment he was ready and willing to give the man a dent in his skull, the next, he was sent flying across the hall, ears ringing.

Breathing heavily and full of anger, he lifted his gaze expecting to find one last remaining Security awake and alive, but what he  _actually_  saw was nothing like that at all.

A man, or so he would assume, taller than anyone he had ever seen.  With dark skin and wearing what looked like a cape over a skirt of some kind, the clothes bearing markings similar to those Kiryu himself was now wearing.

“You…”  Kiryu started, the word coming out as a gutteral growl.  ”What do you think you’re doing?    _Who do you think you ARE?!”_

The man’s eyes narrowed, and that was his only change in demeanour. 

“You are acting unbefitting of one of your status, and with your power.”

Kiryu, without thinking, went for the weapon he had been about to use on the Security man, but found that it had skidded away, knocked out of his hand.

“Gkh-!  Who ARE you, anyway?!  To think that you can tell me what to do!”

The man walked closer.  Almost expressionless, if it were not for the narrowed eyes Kiryu knew were aimed at him in disapproval.

“I am your God, Ccapac Apu, and if I feel that you are acting in a manner disrespectful to me, I will make it known.   You are mine, Kiryu Kyousuke.  And I say to you - control yourself.”


	7. Chapter 7

It was hardly as though he didn’t want to respond, or as though he was choosing to remain stationary when he could have gone over and hit the intruder.

No, there was none of that.  He could not have moved.  For the first time since gaining the energy to, he felt… powerless.

And it made him angry.

Ccapac, however, carried on regardless.

“I am the one who raised you from the dead.  I asked what it was that you desired, and you responded with something that you could not do at death’s door.  And so, I made you anew.  Yet you rebuke me for it?  You clearly do not know what it is that you wish, and to whom you were speaking.”  

Ccapac’s confusion was voiced in a tonally muted way, as though still getting used to human speech, something that made him both inhuman-sounding and also highly formal.

As the adrenaline wore off, Kiryu found himself glaring.  He had not expected to be granted someone telling him what to do with his life along with everything else.

And yet-

He remembered what Ccapac described.  He remembered the feeling worse than despair - the feeling of  _nothing can make this better_  - and the plea for one more thing…  if anything, two, but that was neither here nor there, and it was of no great importance now, now that he had power again.

Kiryu’s eyes narrowed.

“I asked for my vengeance.  This man… he was a part of it… and the others!  If they’re dead, then  _what more can I do to hurt them that_ -“

“They are not dead.”

Kiryu stared, unsure whether he had misheard the god.

“ _What_.”

“Their souls were made forfeit for a time, due to the power required to resurrect you as a Dark Signer.  Once we are gone from here, they shall awaken.”

“Why, then?  WHY  _SHOULDN’T_ I SATISFY MY ANGER AGAINST THEM?  I’ll NEVER forgive them for what they did!  NEVER!”

Ccapac’s expression never changed, nor did his unwavering gaze at Kiryu, as though looking into and through Kiryu’s very soul.

“And… where, then, would you stop?  What are two bodies?  More?  How much would it take to… satisfy you?”

As Ccapac spoke, Kiryu could see, against his will.  The beaten, broken forms of the Security who had captured him, taken him in.  Others, and yet more.  And the blank, oddly curious tone with which the god spoke of the carnage.

“A war may be upon us, but bloodshed should always be approached in moderation.”

Kiryu shuddered, despite himself.

He wanted those men DEAD.  And yet…

“Walk away.  If it is truly your will, another chance may come.”

He had better things to do, and if this was the last he ever saw of Security’s detainment centre, he’d be satisfied enough, for now.


	8. Chapter 8

 From the moment they left the facility, it became almost a tug of war between Kiryu and the god.

Ccapac Apu wanted to go a certain direction, towards where, apparently, he could feel something familiar, drawing him onward.  

Kiryu, on the other hand...

"RGH-!"  

Yet again, is being pulled away from the direction  _he_ wanted to go in.  Back toward the parts of Satellite he knew best, to hunt down Jack, and Crow, and Yuusei - oh, and the things he'd do to them once he found them.  The things he would DO-

But he would only be able to if he could, at all, reach there and find them in the first place.  And with the god grabbing his clothes every time he tried turning away, standing in his path when he least expected it - resulting in more than one awkward moment where he walked right into Ccapac, who stoically didnt say a thing, only frowning and setting Kiryu back on the 'right' path.

This time, there was a firm but steady hand on his lower arm.  The god's arm directly touching the mark that had been tattood there ever since his resurrection.

The mark flared, and Kiryu flinched as it burned in reaction to the touch.  

"You," the god said, "are trying my patience."

Kiryu's eyes hardened, his teeth clenched, completely unwilling to admit that he might not have a choice.  What with how they were sometimes having to go through and past dangerous areas, the junkyards of Neo Domino and the scrapheap of Satellite, the worst thing was that Ccapac had a very good point in leading them away at times.

But still.

"I told you before.  You could talk me into putting off my revenge against Security back then, but I won't be satisfied if you keep me from-"

"You are naive.  Do you truly think that was the only reason I brought you back from death itself?"

Kiryu was galled at being called  _naive_ of all things.  He was the one who had had sought out the best, created a team out of them, survived Satellite and come out tougher and stronger for it, rather than letting it wear him down.  And he was being called  _naive_?

"You have a long path ahead of you," Ccapac continued, as they reached the peak of a junkpile.  "Once you have moved your feet forward down one, it is impossible to go back.  Only to keep going forwards."

Kiryu looked out at the surrounding view, certain that he recognised area upon area, even from afar, that some places would be burned into his memory no matter what else happened to him.  His black and blue cloak billowed in a wind that blew familiar smells and sounds his way, smoke and metal stinging in his nose, shouts and screams - both happy and angered, others afraid.

It was where he'd grown up.  A parentless brat on the streets after Zero Reverse, old enough to know his name and not forget it, but young enough not to have been made soft by easy living before the disaster had struck.

Now, it had also been where he'd died, wasting away in a cell.  He had been through Hell, and then, he had started to wonder how long it would take until Hell took him back.  For a while, a short while, he'd thought that had happened when Ccapac Apu had contacted him and restored him to a life-like state, remade him into a Dark Signer.

Now, however, he questioned that.  Continually.

The God got on his nerves.  Non stop.  Their objectives were different, no matter what Ccapac said.  And now, those odd, inhuman blue eyes of his were staring out toward the B.A.D area.

Kiryu scowled, and - knowing to take advantage of opportunities when they arose - started to move onward quickly, before the god noticed.


	9. Chapter 9

Demak had made the journey not knowing what to expect.

So far, all of the Dark Signers that the gods had chosen had been either obsessed with something potentially harmful in its capability ot distract them, or even... borderline psychotic.  

The Gods were working their way through some of these issues, but it would take time.  Time not one of them truly had.  He supposed that it was all that one could expect when the gods depended on choosing those at death's door.

Demak himself had gone into the arms of death willingly, with open eyes, understanding why he was doing such a thing, and for what reason.  It was for no short-term, petty wish that he gave himself up to his god, but rather a wish to serve and be of use.  The others might look at him strangely for this, having lived their lives out in the world corrupted by the Crimson Dragon, but their opinions mattered little... apart from when they caused disagreements to flare up, heated arguments regarding how as to go about their mission dividing them time and time again.

Still, there was nothing to be done about it, and a new presence had been felt.  It would only be courteous to go out and meet their new comrade, prepare them for the new life they had, whether they realised it or not, chosen.

Although as he grew closer, Demak bit back a sigh.  Cusillu might be snickering, but he knew, he simply  _knew_ , that those sounds of someone shouting in the distance could only mean that this was going to be yet another troublesome case.

A scream of frustration.  Angry words.  Not too far away.  

He should probably step in on this before it became too... problematic.

"- _I'm not simply going to let you-_ "

Demak coughed, politely, to one side.  To give the boy - and that was all that he seemed, in the older Dark Signer's eyes - some chance to notice him.

The younger one turned.  Met him with a piercing glare.

"And who do you think  _you_ are?"

Rude, too.  Ah, well.  One worked with what one had.

"I am Demak.  Bearer of the Mark of the Monkey, and envoy of the God Cusillu."  He let the moment stretch between them to allow the other to let that sink in.  "And you?"

The other snorted, and rolled his eyes.

"Kiryu Kyousuke!  Lea-" He cut himself off, seeming to bite his tongue at a slip he had not at all intended.  "Keh.  'Bearer' of the mark of a Giant  _pain in the ass_."

Demak would be calm.  He had dealt with far worse.  He could take this also.

"That is your god that you are speaking of in such a disrespectful manner."

"Hn.  See if I care."

"From your resurrection onward, you are now a Dark Signer.  Whatever reason you agreed to be brought back for, is secondary to the responsibility you now own in your position."

Kiryu paced restlessly, and even from this, Demak could tell that he was one who was used to action.  Doing.  The thought of being turned off course in such a way likely would not sit well on such a soul.  A fitting one for the Traveller to have found, then, if perhaps ironic and difficult.

Then, all of a sudden, the boy stopped on his heel.

"That," Kiryu said, " _That_ is what that guy keeps saying!"  He was pointing at a patch of what appeared to be think air to Demak's right, where he could only assume Ccapac Apu was currently standing.  Or that the boy had decided was an adequate direction.  "And for some reason, it isn't making me feel like being a  _good citizen_ and just following either of you on your heel like some kind of Security dog!  You can take your 'responsibility' and 'position' and forget all about it!"

With that, he began to walk away, heading, as ever, in the same direction.

"That would not be a wise idea.  Nor would I choose to were I able."  The bearer of the Giant mark kept walking.  "I doubt that, if you knew what I did, you would be running from such a destiny."

 _That_ got the errant Dark Signer to stop.  Stay in place for a tense minute that seemed far longer.  Turn around, this time with suspicion tinged in part with curiosity.

"And why," Kiryu asked, taking first one step forward and then another which were meant to be intimidating, "would you think that?  And that I would  _run_ from anything?  You.  You don't know me at  _all_."

"I could say the same of you and the Dark Signers' cause," Demak said, eyes narrowing slightly.  "Perhaps," he said, hoping to catch onto more of that latent curiosity and challenge one who clearly  _would not_ back down from a challenge, "I could enlighten you."

Twitches in the other's face denoted that something was being said that Demak was not privy to.  It was too much to hope that Ccapac had any sway over his envoy, but-

Kiryu scowled in his direction.

"Tell me your story," he all but demanded.  "And we'll see if I find that a satisfactory reason to go along with you.  I'm warning you now - it'd better be a  _damn good one_ to satisfy me."


	10. Chapter 10

"In the beginning were the gods, and all those created by them," started Demak, with the lilting tone of a story told to each generation and held in reverence.  "The gods had created all things, and were one with all things.  They were many, and walked to and fro on the Earth.  It was deemed good, and although rivalries and competitions were plentiful and hatred existed, all understood their place in the world, their honour, and how the gods influenced their lives."

Ccapac had stood still, and something about the way he was standing, fierce blue eyes closed instead of piercing into him for once, for which Kiryu was thankful. He himself had his arms crossed, listening with scepticism, wondering how any of this would prove useful  _or_ impressive.

"And?"

"A great creature arrived," Demak said bluntly.  "A dragon of fire, and rage.  That changed all.  At first it was minor, but the disruptances grew in time, until there was nothing for it but war.  A war between the gods, and the Dragon.  Not all of them were able to fight directly; many were in far-off lands, and could not reach the battlefield before the victory was taken, for good or for ill.  Many had their own evils to face.  Some more still could not bring themselves to care, too engrossed in their own matters to see past to those they once knew.

The first fight, the gods won.  But the Dragon was nothing if not patient, and willing to bide its time until it was strong enough to seek out its revenge against those who had slighted it.  Five thousand years passed, and the gods, who had once been all-powerful, found that their strength had been depleted in the previous war, and they required aid."

Ccapac breathed, and for some reason Kiryu found himself shuddering.  For a moment, the metallic tang of Satellite had been mixed with sand, and sea, things that came from another time and another place.

"Five pathways were opened.  Five warriors, faithful to the gods.  Such people who would be willing to die for their cause, to stay the Crimson Dragon from its course.  The gods, and their people, hoped that it would be enough.  The dragon... merely echoed them, splitting off its power into five markered individuals, each with a distinctive dragon of their own.  A portion of power, and the beast protecting them enough to win the war, and then, no more."

"So where do we come into this?" Kiryu asked, eyes narrowed and wondering what the srange man with his outlandish stories wasn't saying.  "The gods fought, the Dragon loses.  They get people to fight for them.  So?"

"Listen."

It hadn't been Demak who'd spoken.  Kiryu jolted, looking at where Ccapac was, and had been so very still up until now.  In fact, even with that one word, the stillness wasn't truly disrupted; it was almost as though the word had simply entered his head for all that there was a lack of proof the so-called god had ever spoken.

Demak, however, was now looking at him with a certain kind of expression that suggested he knew exactly what kind of thing had just happened.  It occurred to Kiryu only now that the older man might even be in the same situation, having a near-incorporeal, somewhat ghostlike god haunt his steps.

"In the last battle, while we were able to take one of theirs, the gods were sealed under the ground in the Nazca plains.  The mark you bear corresponds with the god who brought you back, and who would lend your their power whenever it is needed."

"You lost.  You're telling me that with all of these  _gods_ fighting that thing, you still  _lost_?"

"We fought to the last," Ccapac told him calmly, while Demak simply searched his face for something Kiryu didn't know he'd find there.  "However, some thought that a... tactical retreat, was in order.  That while a victory might be gained, it would be done so at too high a cost.  Never assume that you are more powerful simply because you believe in your own power.  Always understand that there is another force to be reckoned with."  The god's eyes opened again.  "And a matter of revenge between two people is truly worth more than all of this?"

Kiryu's fists clenched, his muscles tense in preparation to hit something at the reminder of his need for revenge.  The thought that  _anyone_ would be allowed to belittle it at all was- unforgivable.  He didn't even know if, regardless of what Ccapac himself had been able to do, he would be able to touch the god at all.

"What do I have to do with any of this, then?  Why not anyone else?  And _why now_?"

Demak sighed.

"Some years ago now an event happened to cause the gods to be freed.  The gates of the Underworld were opened.  It would be possible to gather our forces and rebel against the Crimson Dragon.  Many things have occurred since then, and nothing can stop the flow of time towards the battlefield that would decide the fate of the world.  You were chosen for a reason, Kiryu Kyousuke, and you have a part to play.  The fate of many depends on how well you can stay true to that path."

Unable to merely stand still with all of this, Kiryu began to pace.  Turning one point over, examining the other.  He hadn't chosen this, true, but his mind threw back the fact that he'd asked for  _anything_ in return for that one thing -  _two things, really, two_ \- he had wanted to do before dying to this world in a rotten prison cell, away from anyone...  

"And what do I get in return?  Some half-life?  In the end, will I get what I asked for?"

His revenge.  One last duel.  To make Yuusei suffer, to understand  _just how much_ he himself had suffered.  The hell he'd been through.

"If it is still your wish, then it will be granted you, within reason."

There was something to be said for 'exact wording'.  He'd used it himself during his time as Team Satisfaction's leader, against their enemies.  It had at times been humorous, but he knew one thing - that they were often traitorous.

However.  It seemed straightforward enough, and if he got what he wanted out of this... then he'd do it.  He'd fight their damn war.

But on his own terms.  And for his own reasons.


	11. Chapter 11

Demak lead them this time, and neither Kiryu nor Ccapac argued the point, or the direction.

It wasn’t long until he realised where they were headed, but even that didn’t get the reaction it would have from him say, even up to six months ago.  But he wasn’t the same man as before, and apart from wondering what kind of people would live in BAD, and that far in at that, he knew that, annoying or not, the gods - and Kiryu and Demak by extension - were far more powerful than any remaining gangs or thugs.

Not to mention that when a group of men came up to them, joking about how Kiryu and Demak were dressed, it took only one look, and they decided that they’d picked on the wrong people, running as far as they could.

It seemed they didn’t think it was such a good idea when the ones dressed weirdly also had demonic eyes.

Idly, Kiryu wondered where they were from.  They would have come at him and his ‘guide’ with weapons, not duel disks, so was it possible they were from a gang he’d taken down?  Or were they simply those rare non-duelists?  

He would never know.  Only that they would have been just as brutal - or would have tried to be - with a deck as with knives and bits of thrown together junk.

His eyes narrowed at a stray thought.  What if they - or others like them - had been duelists, duelists he and the others had fought, whose duel disks they had destroyed, and in doing so forced them here?

Ccapac, walking alongside him, noticed his unease, yet for whatever reason didn’t, for once, call him out on it.

Still.  The thought wouldn’t let go of him, even as they passed through the dangerous areas that even Security wouldn’t dare enter.  The part of the map that he’d covered in black and crossed out even before thinking about anything else.

Most knew their way to the bridge.  It was a rare child in Satellite who didn’t know what Daedalus Bridge looked like, even if it was from a distance.

But they weren’t heading toward the bridge, were they?  The sound of the sea that surrounded the island on all sides was ever-present, but not as immediate as it would have been if they’d been heading toward one of the ‘coast’ areas. 

If anything, they were heading inland.

Past the piles of refuse and the buildings in various states of disrepair, and without warning, there was nothing. 

Or almost nothing.

The land itself, yes, was bare, sparse, flat, compared to what they’d just come out of.  But in the distance, easily visible, was a crater.

Kiryu couldn’t help but react when he realised at long last where they were headed - Old Momentum.  Ground Zero.  A shiver ran up and down his spine as he remembered that Yuusei’s father had worked on the damn project - a fact that he’d never held against his friend before he’d turned traitor, but now was willing to use almost anything as fuel for his hatred.

Demak stopped.

“That is our destination,” he said, somewhat uselessly to Kiryu.  “Follow me.”

The other Dark Signer led them in, and down, into the deeps of the old research facility.  The shivers that ran down him only grew more intense the further they went, and he was unnerved to find that even Ccapac - even _a god_ \- was discomforted by _something_.

“That’ll probably be the spirits of those trapped within Momentum,” Demak explained.  “They were caught there when the doorway to the Netherworld was opened, but unable to return to being fully alive… or return to whence they came, and move on.  Because of how they died, they have a dislike for the Dark Signers and our gods, regardless if this is unfounded or not.”

“And you still thought this would be a great place to have your _hideout_?  Hmph.  Smart.  _Really_ smart move.”

“I believe there were several good reasons for it, and all of them did outweigh the obvious disadvantages, Kiryu-kun.”

And with that the man held out his hand to a door, ignoring Kiryu’s distaste in being addressed in such a manner.

“This,” he said, gesturing to a wide, open room with not much more than a long table, “is the main meeting area.  There aren’t too many of us just yet, however.”  Demak looked around.  “Please, wait here.  I will be back shortly with our first… and the one who currently leads our efforts.”

At least he and Ccapac would be left to their own devices for a while, at any rate, even if he wasn’t entirely sure he trusted this not to be some kind of trap.  He voiced as much aloud, if in a muted grumble.

“I highly doubt it,” the god replied, looking as calm as he had been ever since they’d arrived.  Which was to say, still somewhat ruffled.  “This sensation will take some time to become used to, however.”

“You’re assuming we’re both going to stay here,” Kiryu snorted, an eyebrow raised.

“I will admit.  It would be good to see the rest of my brethren once more.”

Kiryu rolled his eyes, and satisfied himself with finding a chair - probably the head, meant for the one in charge, which was even better in his opinion - and making himself at home while he waited for the one Demak had gone off to find.


	12. Chapter 12

It started with a single spider, that should have gone unnoticed.

Small and black, it crawled along where the shadows were, pausing every once in a while.  The beings in the room were much larger, one with a booming voice that reverberated around even as far away as the spider was, the other with a voice much more easy to hear, that was familiar, even. 

Maybe it was the familiarity that was the spider's downfall.

Closer, closer...  It couldn't harm to get a little closer, could it...  The spider knew that voice.

A spider, small as it was, even if it were godly in origin was only a spider, and could not understand the conversation going on between the two.  Words were spoken, and then more words, and then words were spoken by the other with the familiar voice.

Two front legs felt out the area in front, like feelers, and onward it went.

Until it stopped, certain somehow that one of the two, the one with the voice like loud, strong wind, like its master's, had _noticed_.

Curiosity and familiarity were its downfall.

Rudger winced as the misssing leg returned to his birthmark from his place in the hallway just outside where the two the spider had been watching were waiting for him.

...

"Hey-!  Damn thing turned into dust or something..."

" _I would assume because it belonged to one of my bretheren, Kyousuke.  I warn you be more careful next time you see a spider.  It might be one of his."_

"Huh?  His?"

The door opened, and a man walked through with yellow-blond hair and tanned skin.  He wore robes of a similar sort to Kiryu's own, although accented in red rather than blue.

"I take it you are Kiryu Kyousuke, then.  And you bring with you the Travelller."  He bowed slightly, only a jerk of his upper body as an extension of the greeting.  "I am Rudger Godwin.  I am also the one who leads the Dark Signers, and bears the mark of the Spider, Uru."

Oh.  That would be the 'him'.  He crossed his arms, a slight smirk playing across his mouth as he pointedly didn't bow back.

"I figured.  What with the spider you sent in to spy on me."

"A minor precaution.  When our members are those who have come back from the dead, sanity is hardly something to be taken for granted."

"Thanks for the vote of _confidence_.  You know, if it weren't for the damn god who brought me back and your lackey wherever he is, I wouldn't even _be_ here."

"Clearly," Rudger said, narrowing his eyes, "you have to be aligned even somewhat with our cause if one of the Gods has chosen you."

This time, Kiryu didn't even bother holding back from rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah.  They told me the story.  And if I didn't have proof, I'd have written it off as occult superstition and left it at that.  What?  You think I'm going to just ally myself with you for the 'greater good'?  Ha!  I've got better things to do!"

He made to head back to the door, regardless of not knowing his way out, but was stopped short by Rudger's words.

"Even should you try to do those things, you would _fail_.  Your place is here with us now, where no one would attempt to take you back in for whatever crime you had committed."  Kiryu stiffened, back going ramrod straight in fury and confusion at how this absolute stranger could know - the marker had turned red, the same as he'd seen on these other peoples' faces.  "Where your status as no longer being alive is not constantly under question.  Where the future matters more than the past."

He turned back around, slowly, a dark look on his face.

"There's a duel I want to fight, and I'm going to get it.  No matter _who_ stands in my way."

"And get that duel you will... given time.  Go after it too soon, and you'll attract attention.  Not only from the authorities, but from the Crimson Dragon itself."

Kiryu clenched his fists - why was he even involved in this?  _Why_ did he feel a sliver of dread at the name?

"The Signers had already started to arrive many years ago," Ccapac put in, staring straight at Rudger as he did so.  "Indeed, it would be endangering the entire mission should they discover us and our whereabouts too soon."

"All right."  Breathe, even though he didn't need to.  Close his eyes, and he was back in base, preparing for the next strike, asking for suggestions.  Just for a moment.  "Then what do _you_ suggest?"

Rudger crossed his arms.

"We wait.  We prepare.  You, I think, should get used to that new deck of yours."

Kiryu snorted.

"And?  That's it?"

"You could also do with learning some respect, not only for the chain of command, but also for your God."  Which appeared to be Rudger's final word on things.  "Demak!"

The doors swung open again, and the monkey-man came back in, looking just as deadpan as he had before.

"If you'd show Kiryu-kun to the residential part of the complex, I'd be most grateful."

Demak held the door open and Kiryu, still stinging from the dressing down from both of the others, stormed out.

Oh, he'd use their hospitality.  And their resources.

But as soon as he found a way to get what he wanted without them, he'd be _gone_.

...

AN: Headcanon states that Kiryu, an alpha male (leader of Team Satisfaction) _never_ got along with Rudger, leader of the Dark Signers.  It's just.  Explosive.  And it only gets more so later on.


	13. Chapter 13

After being stuck in a single solitary prison cell for months, Old Momentum was palatial, even despite its dark, almost claustrophobic atmosphere.  His first few days were spent in exploration, nothing to mark the room he'd chosen other than a scratched mark on the door which earned him a look from Ccapac, but after he shrugged it off, nothing more was said on the matter.

There were streets' worth of rooms, like this part of the place had been a massive hotel rather than a research facility.  Each room was somehow still on the energy grid, the first time he'd ever seen light switches working anywhere other than one of the city-run factories rather than simply there for show, proof of the past.  Attached to each room - in his area, at least - was a washroom, with a shower.  In another part there was a small kitchenette, with sparse capabilities.  On another floor entirely there was an entire canteen, although it must have been years since the place had held its full capacity. 

He could almost see the ghosts of those who'd lived and worked there with each day that passed.  He wondered whether any of them had known that in just one day, most of them would be dead. 

Other areas didn't interest him nearly as much; there was a library, but most of what it held was either out of date or far too advanced for him to follow.  There were lab rooms, but while he'd had an interest in _some_ parts of science, he'd never been involved the way _certain_ people were, and he'd left, leaving them be while making a note in his mind of where they were, just in case.

Someone must have cleaned all of this up.  It couldn't have become like this by itself.

Feeling somewhat like he was intruding into some kind of area filled with ghosts in a way that he hadn't even when going through the streets of Satellite that anyone could have been able to tell were once the busiest, he'd backed out.

Back to waiting, then.  A game he'd always hated.  Oh, he could be _good_ at it when it was useful to him, but he'd never exactly enjoyed it.  The uncertainty.  The drag of seconds into minutes into hours and now, days into weeks.

Two weeks later found him 'sitting' upside down, head practically resting on the floor while his feet were on the headrest of the sofa in the common area he'd taken to using.  It was odd, the rush of blood to his head when he wasn't truly alive any more, not in the right sense of it, anyway.  The odd tingle as his extemities started to lose feeling.

And then, the door opened.

The first thing he noticed, being honest with himself, was _legs_.  He couldn't have helped it if he'd tried - he was upside down, and it wasn't as though there was much of anywhere else to look, and if he'd even _tried_ to look up, he'd have deserved any retribution he'd got.

So he kept his eyes as focused on just 'legs' and the table legs beyond and the hem of her skirt until she'd passed, at which point, eyes having widened considerably without his noticing, he blinked a few times, and then duly proceeded to make a complete and utter mess of putting himself the right way up again.

The woman - now sat demurely in a seat, the right way up, ankles crossed and looking straight at him with a face that clearly said she was unimpressed - was dressed in a way that did not, to his eyes, immediately shout 'Dark Signer!'.  She was wearing a light summer dress, the kind of thing he'd expect more of what he'd seen of the high-end parts of Neo Domino, instead of Satellite...

"You're Kiryu Kyousuke-san, right?  Rudger-san told me about you."

"Hn.  And _you_ are?"

"Misty Lola.  Dark Signer of the Lizard, Ccarayhua, and although we've only just met, I'm also someone who's been allied to the cause for far longer than you."

"Ohh?  And I suppose that makes it so you know more about what's going on, hm?  Or does it just mean you've been strung along longer...?"

"Strung along?  Ah, I _see_.  No... unlike certain others, I not only had a clear goal in mind when brought back, but I also am fully aware that we can't act on a whim.  I'm willing to be patient, if it means seeing justice be done."

" _Justice_?  Hn!"

He rolled his eyes and looked away, tossing his legs up and over the length of the sofa, so that his feet were resting on the other armrest.

"Also unlike certian others, I _also_ have a life _outside_ of the Dark Signers.  A job.  People I see on a day-to-day basis."

His eyes narrowed, not liking her tone.

"Are you trying to imply something?  Miss 'I've got everything'?  Oh, _wait_ , I just remembered.  You _don't._   You're missing something _big_ , aren't you?   _A life_.  What all of us need to lose to get into this hellhole."

The book she'd been slowly opening slammed shut with a loud noise and as she stood, Kiryu could see that she was having trouble keeping herself under control. 

 _Good,_ he found himself thinking.  _Show me.  Show me that dissatisfaction of yours._

"You want to know how I lost my life, do you?"  She walked towards him, pausing only when near the end of the sofa his head was at.  "I _died_ in finding that my little brother was _killed_ by an organisation I still haven't been able to reach into and tear the heart out of.  Is that good enough for you?  And now, I could turn this on you and ask you the same question, but what would the point in that be?  You have _no one_."

In the time it took him to get off his seat and stand, ready to hit her - it was free for all in Satellite, and who cared if he damaged that pretty face - she was out of the door already, letting it bang on her way out.

_No one._

_You have no one.  
_

_All gone.  They all left.  
_

_Traitors...  
_

And yet for once, that wasn't the most important thing.

He screamed, with raw frustration, confusion and hurt, lashing out as his fist hit the door, Dark Signer strength giving him the power to put a dent in it and heal his hand back up in minutes, but it still hurt.

He was still there a while later, when Rudger passed by.  The man looked over the situation, narrowed his eyes, drawing his attention to what appeared to all others to be an empty part of the room.

"I'll be expecting you to fix that."

Kiryu slumped, losing the rest of his energy to fight back, and nodded.

She didn't come back, after that.  Not for another week at least, during which Kiryu fixed the door and spent far too much time leaning on the balcony of his room, looking up out at the unbearably sunny skies of the outside world, the pain numbed, but with it everything else.

When she did return, she found him sketching something out, something that he instantly hid from sight.  He glared up at her, to which her only response was to bow her head.

"I feel I must apologise for my earlier behaviour. It was unsightly, and bad first impression, regardless of anything you might have said to cause me to react that way."

He narrowed his eyes at her, not entirely trusting of the apology, and huffed, looking away slightly.

"You think it's that easy, do you?"

"Perhaps it isn't," she sighed, folding her hands together in front of her, "but it is a start, is it not?"

"Hn."

He shrugged, and left - not realising for the time being that he'd forgotten to bring with him the sketch he'd made a start on, that of a desire he'd had before everything had gone so wrong, having heard about the others and their own...

The beginnings of a design for a D-Wheel.

...

AN: Misty's talent for reading faces comes in handy, and... yes, she's laying him bare.  'You have no one', in this context, could be tantamount to telling him 'I know you basically committed suicide in prison'  - especially when his marker is so obvious as a criminal one.  Big thing, when I see Kiryu having a bit of a complex about being left alone after having grown up in the bad parts of Satellite, and then his team leaves him one by one.

It's also important here that he's starting to realise that some of his thoughts and opinions aren't entirely correct.


End file.
